Hi, Tessa here. Since 2002, I've been writing advice articles for West Coast Swing from my perspective as a WCS Champion and 30 years as a professional teacher and coach. My mission is to help teachers #teachWCSsmarter and dancers #trainWCSsmarter, which we do thoroughly in our Swing Literacy training programs.
But these articles are my way of contributing some free, bite-sized education to the community to help inspire and motivate with practical, actionable advice for your teaching
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I highly encourage everyone to leverage these free resources by sharing them in your community groups and with friends you know who could use them. Enjoy!
You want to attract more dancers to WCS, right? You need more bodies walking in the door, and then you need them to come back after their first class. Of course, the way you teach the class will make a huge difference: traditional methods are proven to be limited in their effectiveness, so you need to
Teaching Snack #3 Your struggleYour students have some stubborn bad habits:having bad posturelazy, shuffling footworklack of stretchpoor eye contactbeing rigid, selfish, or not adaptablegiving unsolicited feedbackrudely demanding or refusing a dancenot thanking partners after a dancebeing grumpy about dancing with lower level partnersbeing snobby when they reach a certain level Of course, some of these
Teaching Snack #2 Your struggle Sometimes you may feel like you’ve lost your raison d’etre (purpose) as a teacher. You go through the motions, collecting money and counting to 8. You forget what inspired you to teach in the first place, and you forget what a powerful impact you have every day on students who
Your struggleYour students seem to be hungry and motivated to progress, but they whine and moan when you try to teach them technique. They either get overwhelmed and intimidated, or they get impatient, waiting for you to hurry up and get to the next pattern. They think that improving their dancing is all about improving
We asked WCS MEN to tell us what would get them into class. You might be surprised what they had to say! Teachers and promoters: you’re going to love me – be sure to read to the end.It’s global phenomenon: most West Coast Swing scenes in the world struggle to attract men to try WCS
We asked WCS MEN to tell us what would get them into class. You might be surprised what they had to say! Teachers and promoters: you’re going to love me – be sure to read to the end. It’s a global phenomenon: most West Coast Swing scenes in the world struggle to attract men to
It’s hard to see the forest for the trees. Beyond your local classes, what else is out there? And how do you know if it’s for you? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a diagram or flowchart showing all the components of this West Coast Swing world and how they fit together? Showing all the
There are so many great teachers out there! You might be one! But even great teachers will have limited success with the wrong tools. Let’s be logical about this and take emotion out of it: “Wrong” in this case, simply means “less effective”, or “with negative side effects”. It doesn’t mean “bad” or “useless”: just the
Even the best teachers with the best intentions have moments of unintentional subliminal teaching: when their teaching habits or advice accidentally deliver a completely different, counterproductive, undesirable lesson. Check your habits here! In this article, I’m going to talk about why certain advice backfires. Then I outline 14 typical teaching habits or advice that tend to
I have no doubt that 99% of teachers are doing the best they can with the resources they have. But the best intentions can backfire due to limited/outdated resources and misconceptions, specifically about pedagogy (the science of teaching). Diligent, humble teachers with a growth mindset constantly check themselves. Be a student of your own teaching
Do you know how to do the Electric Slide? The Wobble? The Tush Push? If I asked you to show me Waltz box step, could you? Can you join in on the Horah? Do you remember how the Shim Sham goes? How about that Go, Johnny, Go square dance? These are “dances”. They are sets of
The best articles you may have missed – you’re gonna wanna share these! The Coach’s Corner blog allows us to discuss common topics our students asked, published in a format that dancers worldwide could learn from and respond to. We enjoy “talking shop”, but for the blog, I draw the line at skill development: physical skills are better